Politics this week

The new Kadima party, founded by Ariel Sharon, won the largest number of parliamentary seats (28) in Israel's general election. Mr Sharon's former party, the Likud, did poorly, winning only 11 seats, whilst Labour won 20. But Kadima, led by acting prime minister Ehud Olmert, won less decisively than expected, which should make forming a stable coalition harder. See article

A cabinet formed by the Islamist party, Hamas, won a parliamentary vote and formed a Palestinian government. Ismail Haniya was sworn in as prime minister. He urged the international community not to punish the Palestinian people for their support of Hamas by suspending aid. See article

After three weeks of argument, the UN Security Council issued a presidential statement calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. At the insistence of Russia and China, a phrase saying that Iranian nuclear weapons would be a threat to peace was excised from the final text. See article

In Iraq, the American army faced mounting anger and political pressure from Shias after a combined raid with the Iraqi army on a Baghdad mosque complex killed about 20 people. Elsewhere in the country, scores more bodies were found, victims of a wave of sectarian violence that has driven 30,000 people from their homes. See article

In Nigeria, the remaining three Western oil workers kidnapped by militants demanding a bigger local share of oil revenues flowing from the Niger Delta region were released.

At a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, the Arab League pledged to fund the embattled and under-resourced African Union force in the Darfur region of the country for the next six months. The UN is expected to assume control of the force in October.

After nearly three years in exile in Nigeria, Charles Taylor, a former Liberian president, was taken into custody by the international war-crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. He faces trial on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. See article

Expensive exit

Antonio Palocci, Brazil's powerful finance minister, resigned because his office was party to the leaking of bank-account details of a witness against him in a corruption scandal. His replacement, Guido Mantega, was the head of the country's largest development bank. The real and Brazil's bonds both lost value. See article

EPA

Animal-rights activists, including Brigitte Bardot and Sir Paul McCartney, tried to hinder an annual cull of 325,000 harp seals in eastern Canada, which officials say is needed to control their numbers.

Hell, no, we won't vote

In Thailand, protestors staged a final demonstration in protest at an election due on April 2nd, which the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has called early in an attempt to disarm his critics. The main opposition parties are boycotting the poll. See article

An Afghan Muslim, who escaped a possible death sentence for the crime of becoming a Christian, arrived in Italy where he was immediately granted asylum.

The first jail sentence given to medical professionals for aborting a female fetus was handed down in India. A doctor and his assistant were sentenced to two years for revealing the sex of the fetus, illegal under Indian law, and then agreeing to abort it. A recent report estimated that around 10m female fetuses have been aborted in India in the past 20 years.

Pakistan praised an offer by India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, of a treaty of friendship, peace and security, between the two adversaries.

Talking to the enemy

Negotiations continued in Ukraine to form a coalition government following a parliamentary election. President Viktor Yushchenko's party fared badly, taking 14% of the vote, forcing him to talk to Yulia Tymoshenko, his former “orange revolution” ally, about returning to her old job of prime minister. See article

Belarus continued to clamp down on protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka's victory in the recent presidential election. A former Polish ambassador to the country was among those jailed. NATO joined Western governments in denouncing the election as flawed and is to review its strategic pact with Belarus. See article

Strikes and demonstrations continued across France against a new labour contract for the young. Though most protests were peaceful, skirmishes broke out in Paris. See article

Turkey tried to reassure markets that its president's decision to veto the appointment of an Islamist as governor of the central bank was not a crisis. Adnan Buyukdeniz was nominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party, which has seen several of its nominations to key government posts rejected by Turkey's secular institutions. See article

The fall guy

AFP

Andrew Card resigned as George Bush's chief of staff. He held the post longer than anyone since the Eisenhower administration, but was blamed by some Republicans for the slide in the president's popularity. He was replaced by Josh Bolten, the current budget director. See article

Jack Abramoff was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud in Florida. The former lobbyist will not be sent behind bars just yet as he is co-operating with a federal investigation in a separate fraud and bribery case, for which he made a plea-bargain deal in January and is yet to be sentenced.

Around half a million people demonstrated in Los Angeles against stringent immigration proposals that are being championed by Republicans in Congress. However, a committee in the Senate approved a bill combining tighter border security with ways to allow illegal migrants to become citizens and others to come as guest-workers. See article

The Supreme Court heard an appeal by Osama bin Laden's former driver, which challenges the use of presidential powers to try suspected terrorists in military tribunals. The court is expected to rule later this year.

In a unanimous vote, the Federal Election Commission decided that political websites, such as internet blogs, can remain broadly unregulated in what they publish (except for paid political advertising).